The Rise of Alexander Zverev

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Alexander Zverev, ranked No. 6 in the world and seeded fourth in the United States Open, traveled from the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Queens to a photo shoot with Adidas in Manhattan on Thursday.CreditCreditChristian Hansen for The New York Times

By Nick Pachelli

Aug. 27, 2017

It was close to 1 p.m. on Thursday, and Alexander Zverev, better known as Sascha, was running late. He sat in the back seat of an S.U.V. making its way from the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Queens to Manhattan’s Upper West Side for a photo shoot. He had no time to eat, so he brought four trays of sushi.

Patricio Apey, Zverev’s agent, took a long breath and rattled off the commitments on Zverev’s schedule for the days before the United States Open — five-hour photo shoot with Adidas, charity event, player party and a sponsor event where Zverev would play badminton in a courtyard.

“And all of it is after the first, second, third and fourth priority, which are all preparing for the actual tournament,” Apey said.

Zverev, 20, is ranked sixth, but with some top players out with injuries, he is the No. 4 seed at the Open, his highest seeding at a Grand Slam tournament. And that added one more event to the list. “Now we have the media round-table that the top four seeds have to go to on Saturday, too,” Apey said.

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Zverev, 20, practicing Wednesday for the United States Open. He is the No. 4 seed.CreditChristian Hansen for The New York Times

It is getting harder to keep up with Zverev. He has played the game better than anyone for the past month. He won the Citi Open in Washington, and seven days later took the Rogers Cup in Montreal, a Masters 1000 event, one level below a Grand Slam tournament.

Zverev ended Roger Federer’s 16-match winning streak in Montreal and pocketed his second Masters 1000 title of the year. In May, he became the first 20-year-old to win the Italian Open in a decade when he beat Novak Djokovic in straight sets. He is the youngest player in the top 50 and is tied with Federer for the most titles this year, with five. Rafael Nadal, the current No. 1, called Zverev “a clear possible future No. 1.”

Zverev does not bask in his accomplishments, in large part because the Grand Slam achievements have eluded him. He has yet to make it to a Grand Slam quarterfinal, and at the United States Open he has never made it past the second round.

“But this year feels different,” Zverev said.

He will, in fact, begin his U.S. Open on tennis’s biggest stage — a night match in Arthur Ashe Stadium on Monday against Darian King. And Zverev’s road to a first Grand Slam final seems clearer. With No. 2 Andy Murray’s withdrawal on Saturday because of a hip injury, Zverev is the highest seed in his half of the draw, and No. 1 Nadal and No. 3 Federer are in the other half.

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Zverev working out at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center on Wednesday. He is the youngest player in the top 50.CreditChristian Hansen for The New York Times

Zverev hits the ball with easy, flowing power on both wings and wins easy points off a penetrating serve that reaches upward of 130 miles per hour. His base is growing stronger, and so is his nerve. He is intent on improving his net play so he can move forward more often. And despite being taller than most of his peers at 6 feet 6 inches, he is nimble. “I’d never seen someone so tall move so well since maybe Marat Safin,” said Jez Green, who was hired as Zverev’s trainer in 2013 after working with Murray.

To his team, Zverev has come to embody the unusual and unexpected over the past year.

“No matter what he’s done, Sascha has always been ahead of his time,” Apey said. “Every time we sit down and say, ‘O.K., maybe by the end of this year he could be here.’ Then he blows the plan out of the water 18 months ahead of time.”

To the outside world watching an age-defiant game, Zverev’s rise this season would seem like the peak of an early career spike. But his inner circle harps on how he has a year and a half left in his development program before he reaches his full potential.

Green said this U.S. Open is “just a segment in Sascha’s five-year development plan; that’s when his foundation will be complete. Then you start looking at real high-level performance.”

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Zverev’s dad gives him a hand during a workout on Wednesday. He is often surrounded by his team, which includes his trainer Jez Green, far right.CreditChristian Hansen for The New York Times

Zverev acknowledged that it could be grating to always be told he was developing. “But I’m No. 6 and still growing, so I guess it’s fine,” he said. “I can get impatient, but at the same time I know I want to put myself in the best position to win big tournaments.”

At Zverev’s side for tournaments are his parents, Irina and Alexander Sr., who both serve as coaches; Green; Hugo Gravil, his physiotherapist; and Juan Carlos Ferrero, a former world No. 1, who came on board at the Citi Open.

The decision to reach out to hire Ferrero was solely Zverev’s. It came as a surprise to Apey and Zverev’s father, but it proved to be a wise choice and showed that after spending most of his life on the tennis tour, Zverev has good instincts.

His parents played professionally in the Soviet Union. Irina was once ranked fourth in the country, and Alexander Sr. was in the top 200 in the world. They immigrated with Zverev’s brother, Mischa, to Hamburg, Germany, in 1991 and taught tennis at the club UHC Tennis Hamburg.

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Zverev, left, after his victory over Roger Federer at the Rogers Cup this month.CreditMinas Panagiotakis/Getty Images

Sascha was born in 1997.

“I was playing on court with Mischa up until Saturday, and Sascha was born Sunday,” Irina said.

Four days later, the family took baby Sascha to the courts.

Sascha grew up watching Mischa, now 30 and ranked 27th, play as a junior and a pro. Alexander Sr., whom everyone on the team and in the players’ lounge affectionately calls Papa, recalled that every time he and Mischa traveled for tournaments, Sascha would cry and beg to come along. But while Mischa and Alexander Sr. were away, Irina taught Sascha his technique and built the foundation for his game.

Every member of the team mentions at every opportunity how Irina is the rock, engine and heart of the whole Zverev enterprise. From her, they say, comes Sascha’s teeth-clenching grit, fighting to the very last point, as when he saved a match point against Richard Gasquet with a 49-shot rally, going on to win the match and the tournament in Montreal. “That’s all my wife,” Alexander Sr. said. “The fight is from her.”

When Sascha was old enough, his parents spent equal time coaching the boys, and the family began traveling on tour together. Sascha joined Mischa on every tour stop, always asking if he could hit on the stadium court.

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In May, Zverev became the first 20-year-old to win the Italian Open in a decade when he beat Novak Djokovic in straight sets.CreditMichael Steele/Getty Images

“He was traveling with me from such a young age, for so many years before he ever stepped on court as a player,” Mischa said. “He went on Center Court against Rafa at the Australian Open this year, but he’d been there before. So he kind of skipped the introduction phase. He feels like he belongs.”

Although Sascha has earned well over $5 million in prize money, and countless more in endorsements, he still lives with his parents and brother, in Monaco.

The family still circles the globe together, except during Asian swings, when Irina stays home with the family’s toy poodle, Lovik.

The balancing act is working better than ever. Mischa, who will be getting married in November, reached the quarterfinals at this year’s Australian Open after beating Murray, the No. 1 seed. Five months later, Sascha entered the top 10. The brothers are in the same section of the draw at the U.S. Open and could meet in the quarterfinals.

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Zverev and his brother, Mischa, left, playing badminton in a sponsor event in New York the week before the United States Open.CreditTimothy A. Clary/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Everyone has a part to play.

“Papa keeps everything inside. Jez is a bit more expressive and me, I’m jumping, somersaulting and screaming,” said Gravil, the physiotherapist.

“Irina can’t watch Sascha’s matches. She stays at the hotel and takes Lovik on walks until her phone rings. They all fulfill a role and purpose on the team and stick to it. It helps dissipate the pressure and the outside noise.”

Until now, the team around Sascha has sheltered him from attention. Alexander Sr. clasps his hands on both ears to demonstrate. But with results comes exposure.

Asked whether celebrity entices him, Zverev shrugged.

“I guess,” he said, a frequent response when answering questions about himself.

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Zverev signing autographs after a workout.CreditChristian Hansen for The New York Times

He recently did a spread in Vogue for the second year in a row, but he had not yet seen the photo of him and Dominic Thiem, 23, his friend and fellow top-10 player.

Thiem is another promising young player vying for the space behind tennis’s Big Four of Federer, Nadal, Murray and Novak Djokovic. Their moment would seem to have arrived. Zverev already has more Masters 1000 titles than any player born from June 1987 to March 1997, and Thiem was the only player to beat Nadal during the clay-court season.

Zverev is ambivalent about the added media attention, but he is certain it will not change him. He does not care to stoke any flames of rivalry with Thiem or the 22-year-old Nick Kyrgios.

“You can’t change who you are,” he said. “So I try to stay myself.”

Staying himself can mean keeping to himself — playing chess or FIFA, or watching “Prison Break,” or playing with Lovik at the hotel. He is happy to let all eyes in the coming weeks remain on Federer, the 36-year-old great who has won two Grand Slam titles this year.

“Maybe I can quietly go through the tournament,” Zverev said. “But at same time, everyone wants attention, wants to be part of the big scene.”

This year’s United States Open may be his big scene, his tournament to seize.

“I feel different going into this Slam than I felt ever before,” he said. “I feel like I’m one of the ones who can compete for this Slam, actually. Even though I won Rome, I didn’t feel this way going into Paris. I feel I can beat anyone.”

On the practice court last week, he played sets with the 19th-ranked Tomas Berdych. At the end of their last changeover, Zverev’s face changed from boyish and playful to steely. It is his game face, the one he got from Irina. The expectations, the frenzied schedule and the extra attention were put away. Only Zverev was controlling the point.

Correction:

An article on Aug. 28 about Alexander Zverev and his rising expectations in tennis misstated the age of his fellow player Nick Kyrgios. He is 22, not 24.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page D1 of the New York edition with the headline: Sascha Zverev Has Arrived. Can He Now Break Through?. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe